What is the issue?
- Billions of years old geological features are being vandalised in many areas in the country in the name of developmental activities.
- Efforts need to be taken to safeguard our geological structures.
What is the significance of geological structures?
- India’s tumultuous geological past is recorded in its rocks and landscapes.
- They should be considered as our non-cultural heritage.
- The eological impacts of the distruction of geological sites are also a major concern in this era of rapidly changing climate patterns.
How vulnerable are these structures?
- Land sections containing fossils & geo-faults are lost forever due to construction of highways and real estate development.
- India accounts for more than 30% of stone production in the world.
- This industry has been unscientifically mined and managed.
- It is generally outside the pale of public scrutiny, and remains unregulated.
- Along with weak environmental laws governing it, India’s topography and geological heritage stand to be lost forever.
- The Geological Survey of India is the agency entrusted with the protection of geological features.
- More than 26 sites have been selected for targeted preservation.
- But not much has changed on the ground.
What should be done?
- A comprehensive inventory of geological structures in the country needs to be created by GSI.
- A sustainable conservation approach for our natural geological heritage should be formulated as it has been done for biodiversity.
- Geological features that should be declared as national assets include bodies of unusual rock or mineral types, landforms holding records of natural events of the past & significant fossil localities.
- Geo-conservation should be made a major factor in land use planning.
- Stringent legal framework needs to be evolved to support such conservation strategies.
- Educational outreach programmes about these treasures need to be organised for officials, politicians and the public.
How to educate people?
- The collective memory reinforced through memorials & museums will make communities aware.
- Japanese initiative - The Kobe earthquake memorial park in Japan preserves a section of the fault line (around 150m) which ruptured during the 1995 disaster through the town of Hokudan.
- We could emulate this Japnese model to preserve the memory of major geological events.
- On this line, the now-defunct Kolar gold mines could be developed into a geological museum with an educational outreach unit for students.
Source: The Hindu
